State of the Union -- My comments

Thursday

Feb 14, 2013 at 9:23 AM

Comments on the State of the Union address.

William Dameron

In my previous post, I predicted that President Obama’s State of the Union speech would be all oodwa. Surprisingly, some of it wasn’t. He gave us a really long list of things he declared he would work for. Many of them sounded really, really good. He sounded like a Republican overdosed on benevolence pills.

He gave a very good speech, but then he always does. He wins on style points every time.

If only you could believe him. He's given all sorts of promises in his five years of campaigning for the presidency, and in his previous three State of the Union addresses. You’ve heard of serial killers? He’s a serial promiser, and a serial promise forgetter. Put the national interest before the party? That would be a major switch, especially from Obama and the Democrats. It won’t happen. He talked of the budget process. What budget process? Do you think the Democrats will put their spending ideas on paper for everyone to scoff at?

Some good things: tax reform, immigration reform. OK, I’ll believe them when I see them.

Some of his items were really, really bad. Definitely from the left. Bad for America. Bad for the economy. A minimum wage of $9.00? Horrible idea, because there would be many fewer jobs after it went into effect. The government should not regulate wages or prices. Fight climate change? Sounds good, but how? With “Cap and Trade” laws? That’s actually a big tax hike in disguise. The EPA would set carbon dioxide emission levels, but they have too much power as it is.

Some more bad ideas:

Make houses more affordable? What, more subprime loans forced on the banks? That Democrat idea brought on our current economic problems.

Of his good ideas, almost all required “investments” by the federal government. We do need more research, but can we afford to borrow the money from China to pay for it? He paid lip service to entitlement reform. Entitlement growth is driving our deficit and debt expansion, but he has done nothing in four years to reform entitlements. Instead, he wants more of it.

In the oodwa department, make voting more efficient? He pointed to a 102 year-old lady in the audience who supposedly had to wait three hours in line to vote. It turns out she’s from Florida, and came to America when she was 78. She only speaks Haitian, and she had to wait while they went and found an interpreter. The devil is in the details.

Our government is like a woman with fifteen small children. She is working very hard, and now here comes Obama wanting to give her fifteen more. Or, it’s like a cancer on the economy, and this crazy doctor wants to make it bigger instead of shrinking it.

I believe the biggest problem with Obama is that he doesn’t preside like a president, he reigns like a king. I didn’t know Henry the Eighth personally, but I imagine when he wanted something done, he called someone in and ordered him to do it. Don’t bother me with the details. That’s what Obama does with Congress, even though he knows some of the things he wants, such as big tax increases, will never be acceptable to conservatives. It’s his way or the highway. He never makes concessions to Republican ideas.

A real president would work with both sides, would concern himself with details, would see ways to bring his legislation about. Our president travels around, makes campaign speeches, plays golf and basketball, and stays above the fray. Way above it, in Air Force One.